Throwback to a time when TV was simple: You sat in your living room, turned on a box, adjusted the antenna, and let the ol’ network do the work. Today, television is a complex world of hardware, mobile devices, and rapidly expanding digital platforms — often making watching your favorite show more time-consuming as you navigate the vast amount of viewing options. In a recent look across all of the platforms TV Time consumers use to absorb content, it appears as though the world of streaming continues to expand and that viewers are eager to take full advantage.
TV Time surveyed 2,962 US users between the ages of 18-54 who actively watched one of five in-season cable or broadcast television shows: Riverdale (The CW); The Big Bang Theory (CBS); Designated Survivor (ABC); Blindspot (NBC); and Into the Badlands (AMC). For each inquiry, fans were asked “Where did you watch your last episode of [INSERT SHOW NAME]?” Here is a summary of the findings:
- On average, 32% of people surveyed reported watching their last episode of TV Live or on a DVR. The other 68% reported watching their most recent episode across various other digital and cable services.
- In total, 11.6% of people reported watching the most recent episode via a broadcast app, while 8.1% reported watching it direct on the network’s website. (e.g. You’ve missed Riverdale and the only place to watch the following day is on the CW’s app or website!)
- The other 48.3% of those surveyed reported watching the last episode across platforms such as Netflix, Cable On Demand, iTunes, Hulu, Syndication (e.g. TBS) and various other digital platform offerings.
The way a viewer chose to watch a program also varied:
- On average, 69.2% of people surveyed kept it classic by watching the old fashioned way - on a television screen.
- The other 30.8% reported watching the last episode on a device other than a TV screen. Computers accounted for the largest amount with 14.6% of viewers saying they watched their last episode on a computer. 9.6% watched their episode on a mobile phone and 6.6% on a tablet. Outside of the originating broadcast or cable network, it comes as no surprise that Hulu and Netflix were the two most common platforms across the five selected programs with 16% on average going to Hulu and 5% going to Netflix. (This also is a reflection of the platforms the shows are licensed on.) Nonetheless, the findings prove that cross-platform viewing shows a significant shift in how most consumers are watching their television today.
So tell us, How do you like to watch? 😉
